Due date change: your comment for this post is due by midnight on Sunday, October 11.
Read Chapter 5 “Planning Instruction for Content Literacy” in your textbook.
Many instructional strategies are tied to discussion. After reading pgs. 165-168 in your text, reflect on how the teacher in your field experience classroom facilitates classroom discussions to support learning.
Question: Describe a way that you’ve observed your mentor teacher support discussions in your field experience classroom. If possible, relate your observation to our textbook readings.
Due date change: your comment for this post is due by midnight on Sunday, October 11.
Content Area Reading 
Many of the teachers that I observe, support classroom discussions by creating an environment, providing a focus/ task, and by setting the parameters on how to complete their assignment successfully. After instructional time, teachers divide the students into groups of four creating math teams for solving problems. The team members are assigned individual roles that help facilitate their group discussions (i.e. facilitator, task manager, recorder). Each team member is also represented by a different color marker which reflects the drawings or writing they individually contributed to the assignment. As the teams are working, the teacher walks around observing their progress and assists them when needed by providing guidance. The teachers ask lots of questions and students are encouraged to think out loud so that other members can benefit.
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My mentor is constantly asking probing questions as he lectures. He will start off with a question and waits for at least a couple of students to raise their hands before asking for an answer. If he does not get the right answer or some variation of it he will ask a follow up question but never outright tells the student they are wrong in front of the entire class. We have had several good discussions started by not right answers but not wrong answers of students.
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My mentor teacher did a great job at creating a welcoming classroom environment. Due to this open feeling students will continuously ask questions during the lesson. The questions are welcomed by my teacher because they can start a discussion or debate within the class. Due to this open environment, students also feel comfortable stating their opinions and contributing to the discussion. My mentor listens as they discuss and she will guide the discussion one way or the other to either help them come to the correct conclusion or to another idea she wants them to come up with. She’s very good at letting their discussion continue as long as it pertains to the lesson.
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My classroom is more of a resource room where each student receives individual support at a given block in their schedule. For the most part, discussion is between the teacher/my mentor and the student directly. Therefore, discussion tends to be one-on-one and take the form of advocacy. The students are assisted in forming their questions for their professors and in expressing their thoughts and concerns for subject matter. For instance, one student was given three key words, written on a sheet of paper, to help form questions for her professor. She then practiced what she would say and how she would say it with my mentor. My mentor stated that teaching her students to advocate for their needs is her number one priority.
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My mentor teacher has created a class climate where students really seem to enjoy discussions and sharing their opinions.He did this by assuring every student that their opinion and answer was valid and important, even if it was not the response we were seeking. Typically the core of our class is a lecture that also has aspects of a guided discussion. We ask thought probing questions about our current topic and expect students to be active listeners and participants. We really want students to “think aloud” and work through topics that they just can’t grasp (i.e. the role that past racism has played in minorities current SES). Often, guided discussions will flow into a reflective discussion towards the close of class. We ask students to reflect and share what they think the major issues of the topic were, and how they would do things differently to produce a better outcome. Occasionally we will get off topic, but we will allow the discussion to continue if it is a topic that is currently relevant to students lives and one they are passionate about (i.e. comparing Reconstruction era police brutality to modern times).
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In my placement my mentor has created an atmosphere where everyone feels welcomed and comfortable enough to share their thoughts and opinions, good and bad. My mentor supports discussions by asking students to predict and infer before reading and visualize during and after reading. She also offers lots of wait time by saying, “just a minute, s/he’s thinking” which doesn’t allow the student to feel awkward or wrong if they have to think about a response. She will also ask for clarification especially with one of the students. He has a hard time expressing himself, so what she will do is rephrase part of what he says and then say, “can you help me out Student A.”
And there also exist lots of praise in this setting. She doesn’t use “right” or “wrong” she responds more with “and how did you come up with…” or “I like that idea.”
This is a resource room and the students cannot necessarily, keep a discussion going themselves. So after one person says something she usually has to ask another question or if anyone agrees with what was just said.
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My mentor teacher employs much of the information that was included in the text material. For example, she sets a goal for the discussion prior to beginning the activity. For example, she was completing a reading discussion with a group of four students about an informational text that included maps, a concept that they were also studying in their social studies class. She talked about the objective with them and also explained the steps of how they were expected to complete the discussion. This was with a group of third graders who obviously need directions given explicitly due to their level of cognitive development (Concrete Operational). Therefore, the instructions gave them the concepts, but the teacher guided the discussion by helping the students apply those concepts to other situations. She also redirected the students when needed when it was apparent that they weren’t focused on the central topic. She did so in a way that was effective for classroom management and rather than focusing the attention on one student who was deviating from the directions, she asked further questions to guide the question back to where it was supposed to be. Furthermore, the group was arranged in the shape of a U to facilitate discussion. This is a strategy that is used by many of the teachers in the school building.
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My mentor teacher uses a lot of planning an building upon prior knowledge to create a class discussion in which everyone participates. For our resource math class he typically uses a guided practice/guided discussion model to teach new concepts and review concepts we have recently covered. Typically he will plan out a few practice problems for the students to try on their own; he will then ask the students to explain the process they used to get the answer. He picks out the key steps from the students information to build into the next problem or concept. If a student is not going in the right direction with their explanation he will gently guide them to the correct answer or concept needed to move on by asking them clarification questions. In this way my mentor builds a student centered lesson for each new concept. Also, since there is a wide range of abilities in this class he also plans differentiated questions for each student to ensure that they are all able to participate and follow along at the appropriate instructional level.
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My mentor teacher is very skilled in guiding discussion efficiently. She employs many of the strategies discussed in the course of one lesson. Due to the nature of her role this year in the inclusive setting, she tends to do a lot more guided discussion because of the brevity of time that she has to work with the students. Her main objective is to put strategies in place that they can use in the classroom. Although, as she works them through the use of their strategies, she works toward reflective discussion as they put the strategy into their everyday routine.
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My mentor teacher co-teaches all but one class. She leaves most of the discussion to the general education teachers while co-teaching. In the resource Biology class she teaches, she writes on the board what she will teach for the period along with key terms for the lesson. She reads a section of the book then chooses students to read a paragraph from the same section she had just read. After each paragraph she asks general questions about the reading. She always has a basic worksheet to go along with the instruction the students fill out while answering the questions, so they can keep it in their binder, as a resource. She always ends the class with a short video relating to the topic.
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